1. The Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to multi-bladed manually operated knives and more particularly to that class including a portable light source affixed to the handle thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art abounds with multi-bladed slicing knives. U.S. Pat. No. 1,128,479 issued on Feb. 16, 1915 to P. McPherson teaches a multi-bladed slicer including a plurality of knife blades in fixed spaced apart relationship when secured to a blade retaining handlebar and extending parallel to the longitudinal axis of the handle. U.S. Pat. No. 726,697 issued on Apr. 28, 1903 to W. Kelley discloses a conventional single bladed knife whose handle is adapted to secure two additional knife blades thereto. The outermost pair of knife blades are removable thereby enabling the user to utilize the remaining single bladed knife in conventional fashion. U.S. Pat. No. 205,871 issued on Nov. 21, 1916 to J. T. Dwyer, reveals a triple bladed manually operated knife including a lead screw mechanism having oppositely threaded ends utilized to vary the spacing of the outermost pair of knives when the lead screw is manually rotated by the user, providing thereby a triple bladed knife whose blades are spaced varying distances apart so as to obtain slices of the work object in selected varying thicknessess.
All of the aforementioned patents suffer the common deficiency of utilizing blades that have only one cutting edge and providing a multi-bladed knife which lacks a portable work light enhancing the versatility of the assembled knife during use.